Berry Sweet Bath & Body

Aloha Everyone!

Its been a while since I've posted and needless to say, its been a crazy year so far. I'm still in school full-time and my kiddo is in preschool. Its been a rough couple of years for all of us with this horrible economy and endless budget cuts. I can say that I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel though. I'm also back at work almost full-time in addition to school.

So where does that leave Berry Sweet? As of right now, I'm still filling wholesale orders and expand our wholesale accounts. We're still waiting on Japan to pull themselves out of their economic slump resulting from the March earthquake and tsunami - once that happens, we'll be more visible and active in the Japan market than we have been in the past. As for craft shows, between my work and school schedule, it doesn't leave much time but I'll get there at some point. We're going to skip Made in Hawaii (August) and Season's Best (October) this year and just focus on the November shows.

I haven't forgotten about any of you and how much all of you have supported me in the past and you are the reason why I am continuing to do this. There are some things that make me want to give up doing this but when I think of all the people who look forward to our products, how can I stop?

Thank you all for your continued support. For more information, go to our website at www.berry-sweet.com or join us on Facebook for all the latest updates under "berry sweet bath & body." Yes, you will see my teddy bear so you know you have the right page.

Take care and hopefully, I'll see all of you soon!

Okay, its been a long while since I've posted and there are a few new things!

First of all, come and join us on Facebook under "berry sweet bath & body" if you're a facebook user and you'll get all the latest updates.

Second, the website is back up. Don't get too excited, its a non-commerce site but I did put some information regarding our products and scents to help those of you who've requested this. The website's URL is www.berry-sweet.com.

Third, I am going to make an honest push for the etsy store this year. Just gotta get through school first.

For all of you who've posted comments on my last post, I've only seen them now and I'm so sorry for that! Its been an exceptionally crazy year. Thank you for your kind words and please join us on the above listed pages.

The website does contain a blog as well so I won't be posting much on this blog anymore. I'll try to find the direct link to it and post it here.

Thank you again for coming out to support us! Have a safe and happy holidays and we'll see you again next year!

Hi everyone!

With only three more weeks of school left, I'm starting to look at updating a few things - namely, our facebook page, the etsy store and possibly bringing our website back online.

The facebook page is pretty much up. To find us, just to go your facebook page and search for "berry sweet bath & body" and click "like" to become a fan.

Our next show is Made in Hawaii Festival, August 20-22 at the Neal Blaisdell Exhibition Hall - yes, we decided to make the move into the exhibition hall this year as so many of you had a hard time finding us in the arena last year.

If there is anything that you think we should try to make or anything that you are hoping we'll make this year (cupcake soaps, etc), let us know!

take care and I'll post up soon!

carri

Okay,

First of all...to those two ladies who posted comments to the blog during my last post, I'm so sorry, I didn't see it until now.

And Secondly, its a couple of weeks late, but here is the updated inventory listing for those of you who are asking what I've got in stock...

Lip Scrubs are available in lemon cupcake, vanilla ice cream, berry bliss, kiss me (passionfruit rose), yummy chocolate, kiwi strawberry, cookies & cream, melon mambo and pineapple.

Boo Boo Balms are still available in 1/3oz jars and 1/2oz tins. We are sold out on the tubes.

Cuticle Balm, we still have jasmine green tea, yuzu vanilla, satsuma guava, crazy lil flowers, melon mambo and summer love.

Roll on perfume, we have summer love, crazy lil flowers, sweet nothings, mambo #2, holiday berry, paper flowers, and jasmine green tea.

Paper Sachets, we have sweet lavender, poshie, crazy lil flowers, cotton blossom, yuzu vanilla, and melon mambo.

Lip Balms, we have hot cocoa, yuzu vanilla, satsuma guava, plain jane (unflavored), creamsicle and piece 'o cake.

Car Fresheners (the organza bags), we have white tea & ginger, fresh air, holiday thyme, asian plum, jasmine green tea, sweet lavender, mango tea, lemon drops, crazy lil flowers, pineapple, and serenity.

1-ounce organic waterless hand cleansers - satsuma guava, summer love, melon mambo, yuzu vanilla, and crazy lil flowers.

Mini body mist (pocket/purse size), there's satsuma guava, yuzu vanilla, crazy lil flowers, melon mambo, jasmine green tea and summer love.

Shampoo bars, I have applelicious, jasmine green tea, summer love, kiwi sakura (new and pretty darn awesome scent), wasabi bliss, crazy lil flowers, island girl, fresh mint, yuzu vanilla, and melon mambo.

Soaps (yes, the cold process and not glycerin ones) - I have kauai coffee (with kauai coffee grounds in it - excellent for killing odors), melon mambo, fresh mint (contains a touch of menthol, and ground peppermint leaves, lightly cooling during the summer), satsuma guava, lemon drops, lavender (with ground lavender buds), yuzu vanilla (with a sea of little vanilla seeds in it, smells heavenly!), jasmine green tea, and I'm sure theres one or two more that I'm forgetting here...

New email is berrysweetbath@gmail.com

Our next show is Made in Hawaii Festival, August 20-22 at the NBC Exhibition Hall.

Some of our products can be found locally at the Menehune Mac store in Ala Moana near Neiman Marcus & Christian Dior, or their factory store on Waiakamilo Road in kalihi.

Sorry, I'm back in school again so if I take a while to get back to you, chances are I'm studying for exams and haven't looked at my phone...

Thanks again!

carri

I can't believe how far behind I am. But then again, there has been a lot going on lately. Namely, I'm going back to school in the spring!!! So that means that I've been having to try and get everything in order for me to go back to school and trying to find care for kira while I'm in school. Life is crazier than usual.

We have Season's Best at the Neil Blaisdell Exhibition Hall this Halloween weekend. The hours are Friday 5-9, Saturday 9-7 and Sunday 9-4. We'll be in booth #212. When you enter through the main concourse doors, if you veer one row to the left, rather than going straight ahead, you'll find us the second or third "block" in on the left side.

Next weekend we have Diamond Head Arts & Crafts Show. I believe the hours are 9-3pm. We'll be the same place we always are, in booth #145.

We have two more shows after that coming up but I need to confirm what's going on with those first.

Now some of you have been wondering what happened to our website. I decided to take it down for a little while. Its really outdated and I have been horrible with providing hubby with new photos and content SO I decided to take it down temporarily until I figure out what to do with it. For those of you trying to get in touch, please email me at berrysweetbath@gmail.com.

Okay, so what do we have ready to go for the weekend? I have the usual assortment of items for your viewing and smelling pleasure. As usual though, most of our limited edition items will be offered at the thanksgiving show.

I have been busy making cold-process soap the past couple of weeks and am in the process of cutting them down for curing right now (well, not right this very second - I'm typing!). I can tell you that a lot of your favorites will be back, including satsuma guava, jasmine green tea, lemon drops and fresh mint. A couple of scents that people haven't seen since I closed the shop are fresh roses, lavender, and coffee. I also have a few new ones to offer as well. I made every bit of soap that I had supplies for! The bars are cut just a little smaller than before but I think it makes it easier to handle in the shower and hubby says that it tends to be used up more efficiently.

Foaming hand cleansers will be ready as well for this weekend, which is a good thing as flu season is almost here! We will also have our organic waterless hand cleaning gel, which is just as awesome, too.

Lip Balms and cuticle balms are already made, along with our lip scrubs (now made with organic sugar). Lip scrubs, I have a couple of new flavors for you to try! We have strawberry kiwi, melon mambo and well, I haven't figured out what to name the last one but its passionfruit with a hint of red roses. Sounds a little odd but its totally delicious! I treated myself to a lip scrub treatment using some left over yummy chocolate scrub and it was heavenly! Couldn't stop licking my lips for at least an hour after.

Shampoo bars, I'm still working on!

Cupcake soaps? They're coming soon, too!

Cupcake Bubble Bath bombs? I should have some by thanksgiving weekend.

Reed Diffusers? The bottles finally landed and I'm going to start working on them soon.

Did I say I was behind? I mean I'm REALLY behind so I'd better get going!

Take care and feel free to email of you need anything.

carri

Hi everyone!

We have less than a month to go until our season officially starts and I can't seem to get off my duff right now.

for those of you looking for our products, the Menehune Mac holiday store will be opening at the end of this week at the Ala Moana shopping center, mall level, next to the Neiman Marcus entrance. I still have no idea what we're going to send to them for their opening but they will have a decent selection of our products. They will get more variety as we go on with our own production.

So for right now, its looking like...

October 30-November 1 - Season's Best Craft & Gift Show at the Neil Blaisdell Exhibition Hall. Hours are friday 4-9pm, saturday 9am-7pm and sunday 9am to 4pm.

Sunday, November 8 - Diamond Head Arts & Crafts Fair at Kapiolani Community College, parking lot A. I believe the hours are 9am-2pm.

Thanksgiving Weekend - Islandwide Craft & Food Expo at the Neil Blaisdell Exhibition Hall. the hours are Friday 5-10pm, saturday 10am-10pm and sunday 10am-5pm.

Saturday, December 5 - Berry Sweet Holiday Show at Waialae School (in either the cafeteria or library, depends on who's joining us) from 8:30am to 2pm.

I'll update with what I've got as I complete each line. Good news - I have the components to blend our jasmine green tea fragrance again! So many of you were asking for it at Made in Hawai'i.

Okay, I think that's it for now.

carri

Now that I've had a little time to breathe and take stock of things it appears that...

1. many of you liked our new fragrance line up, in particular the melon mambo.

2. roll on perfumes are a hit provided that I merchandise them correctly.

3. most of you actually do want our shower gels, liquid shampoos and hand soaps

4. our customers still can't get enough of our lip balm and cuticle balms.

5. your willing to give lip scrubs a shot.

Needless to say that I am astounded.



Comments about our products that were overheard about us or told directly to us...

overheard:

1. our product doesn't look "hawaiian" enough (I rolled my eyes at that one!)

2. we're like the hawaii version of victoria's secret (yes!)

3. where's the shampoo bars? (long convoluted story...)

told directly to us:

1. where's the shampoo bars?

2. crazy lil flowers smells like that great italian scent that they use to fragrance the lobby of the venetian hotel (was not inspired by it and this was completely coincidental as I haven't been to the venetian hotel in almost 5 years - which reminds me, I need a vacation!).

3. everything is so nicely packaged (thank you!)


Something tells me that I'm going to be busy still...

Just a quick note to say thank you for making made in hawai'i 2009 an astounding success! Even in this economy, so many of you came out to support us and other local businesses and according to the show promoters, this year has been a record year by far.

Our next show is the end of October. I'll post more as I know what's up. Right now, I need to relax and unwind a bit...

If you need anything or forgot to grab anything at the show, please feel free to email with your requests and I'll do the best I can to get things to you.

until the Made In Hawaii festival! Argh, where is the time going?

Anyway, for those of you who've been emailing me asking what I'm going to have available, this is what I've got so far. Some of our newer items, I'm just going to leave out as a surprise you...

Our six featured fragrances this year are satsuma guava, summer love, jasmine green tea, crazy lil flowers, melon mambo and yuzu vanilla. The descriptions for each of these should be on previous posts. However, their breakdown goes like this: purely fruity scents - satsuma guava and melon mambo, fruity & floral combination - summer love, clean scent - jasmine green tea, floral scent - crazy lil flowers, aromatherapy-style scent - yuzu vanilla.

Okay lets, see... I have...

Car & Room Fresheners available in satsuma guava, ume blossom, sweet lavender, jasmine green tea, white tea & ginger, lemon drops, fresh breeze, summer love, crazy lil flowers, and raspberry vanilla.

Large Paper Sachets in satsuma guava, summer love, jasmine green tea, melon mambo, crazy lil flowers, yuzu vanilla, sweet lavender and poshie.

Boo Boo Balm in tubes, 1/2-ounce pots and 1/3-ounce pots

Cuticle Balm in satsuma guava, summer love, jasmine green tea, melon mambo, crazy lil flowers and yuzu vanilla.

Solid Perfumes in 11 fragrances and this is the last year the solid perfumes will be in these cute compacts. I pour the last of the compacts and have been unable to find more so next year, they will probably be different.

Roll On Perfumes in 9 fragrances and an adorable new box!

New Mini Bath Time Sampler set - I only have 46 of these and they're at a great price!

Sugar Lip Scrubs - now made with organic sugar in six new dessert-inspired flavors.

Lip Kits - yes, these will be making an appearance if we can get them done in time. I've paired our new lip scrub flavors with different lip balm flavors so when you layer them together, you get a totally different effect. Example? Lemon cupcake lip scrub with crunchy toffee lip balm gives you lemon crunch cake - yummy! We have a total of 7 different sets to choose from. These are limited, too, as we're only releasing 25 of each during this show.

Body Mist - available in 4-ounce and 1-ounce bottles in satsuma guava, summer love, jasmine green tea, melon mambo, crazy lil flowers, and yuzu vanilla.

Escape pods - a slightly different set. For those of you that may be unfamiliar with the escape pods, these little sets are in a re-sealable zip top bag and contain a travel size (and now refillable) body mist, mini souffle pod (and I do mean "mini"), a 5 gram jar of lip scrub and full sized tubes of our mango butter lip balm and cuticle balm. Available in satsuma guava, summer love, jasmine green tea, melon mambo, crazy lil flowers and yuzu vanilla. We are only going to have 25 of each fragrance available for this show.

Loofah Soaps - I know its been a while since I've done these but they are back!!! So many of you were disappointed that I didn't do them last year, and here they are. Available in satsuma guava, summer love, jasmine green tea, melon mambo, crazy lil flowers, yuzu vanilla, and pineapple.

Mango Butter Lip Balm - mint chip, creamsicle, crunchy toffee, piece 'o cake, satsuma guava, guava passion, gummi bears, red velvet cupcake, lemon cupcake, cucumber melon, black tea, berry bliss, rootbeer float, fruit cocktail, raspberry lemonade, mojito, lavender vanilla

Drawer Sachets - these sold like crazy last year so here they are again - lavender, fresh roses and yuzu vanilla. I believe I only have 24 of each available for sale.

Waterless Hand Sanitizer - a new organic formula in a new bottle. as much as we loved our little malibu bottles, even after years of using them, trying to get more bottle stock was proving to be a challenge. we moved over to our standard squeezie bottle and since we lowered the cost on the bottle, we are able to sell them at last year's pricing instead of taking a price increase. Available in satsuma guava, summer love, jasmine green tea, melon mambo, crazy lil flowers and yuzu vanilla.

Candles - yes, I've made candles. don't get too excited, this is a one-time deal. we have two sizes available, a triple-wick 5-ounce candle in a tin and a 1.2-ounce candle in a tin. Both are excellent sizes to travel with.

Reed Diffusers - I have only 48 available for this show in 4 fragrances. new packaging, new bottles, new everything. you're gonna have to wait and see what scents they are.

I'm working on a couple of other things so you're gonna have to be patient and wait for the show.

Made in Hawai'i details. We are in booth #414 in the ARENA. We are located down the main isle, on the corner of the first "intersection." The hours are Friday, August 21, from 10am-9pm, Saturday from 10am to 10pm and Sunday, 10am to 5pm. Admission is $3 each, I'm sure children under a certain age are free, too, but I don't know where the age limit is. If things are the same as last year, First Hawaiian Bank has discount coupons for the admission fee available at all their branches.

Those of you who wish to place special orders, may do so by emailing me with your requests. You do need to tell me when you're picking it up as with the limited booth space I will not be bringing these with me on the day its not required (i.e., if you say you'd like to pick up on saturday, I won't have it with me on friday).

I can't believe its been almost three months since I posted last - time really does fly! What have I been doing with all my time? Well, I babysat a little girl in may and june, a playmate for kira. She was cute and fun but well, we're going into july and then august, which means its time to buckle down and start prepping for made in hawaii.

So when not babysitting or taking kira to her classes, I've managed to do some pretty hefty production and blending work. I have poured the last of our solid perfume compacts - I remember telling customers they were limited edition because I only had so many compacts and this year is the last year for them. I'll figure out something new for next year. Roll on perfumes did so well last year that I've at least twice as many for this year.

Boo boo balm in the tubes did not go through a formulation change, however, the ones in the pots have. I've been wanting a softer and creamier feeling balm for the pots and metal tins and that is what we have now. Now they include shea butter in the formulation! the result is a much more luxurious feeling balm that works just as well as the tubed formulation.

As far as blending goes, you'll find a few more new fragrances in the line up this year, too. In addition to the melon mambo, lemon cupcake, lavender vanilla mint and mambo #2, we've also created pink melon, candied sunshine, paper flowers, sakura dreams, yuzu vanilla and crazy lil flowers. I opened the concentrated bottle of sweet nothings recently and was absolutely hypnotized by how much more complex and sultry the fragrance has become since I first created the blend last november.

pink melon is a playful combination of a lot of fragrance components, including watermelon, gardenia, jasmine, pink grapefruit, guava, pomegranates, raspberries, vanilla, pineapple and cherry blossoms. Not in that order, of course, and it does sound complicated (and it was!) but the result was well worth it. we ended up with an incredibly light and playful scent with fruity top notes, an airy floral heart and a warm base of vanilla with a touch of amber. available in solid and roll on perfumes - for now.

candied sunshine just makes me happy by smelling it! I wanted to name it something like "happy" or "be happy," but I could just imagine the C&D letter I'd get from clinique or whoever tm'd that name. We even contemplated something like "you steal my sunshine" but hubby said the song wasn't popular (you mean it was the title of a song?!) or "sunshine in a bottle" but again, trying to name a scent at 1am really does a number on your creativity, so "candied sunshine" it was! top notes include sparkling pink grapefruit, soft pomegranates, juicy guava with a touch of sugared flowers and gardenia. available in solid and roll on perfumes.

paper flowers was a real challenge. something soft, floral with a touch of fruit. beautiful and delicately conservative, this blend enjoys notes of rice flowers, lychee, tiare, pineapple, cherry blossoms, and pomegranate. interestingly enough, its the cherry blossoms that anchor the drydown on this one. top notes of sweet lychee with hints of juicy pineapple are rounded out by a soft pomegranate, lead to a soft floral heart of rice flowers and tiare. the base note of cherry blossom makes this one unique and beautiful! available in solid and roll on perfumes - for now.

sakura dreams was a fun one, too! I didn't think too much of it when I first created the blend but by the time I was ready to start pouring the solid perfumes, I realized that this one was really pretty! delicate cherry blossoms are livened up with with a combination of fruits and given a heart of gardenia. a definite must smell, in my opinion! available in solid perfume only (I didn't fully appreciate it when I had poured the roll ons - oops!).

yuzu vanilla was created on a whim, at around 2am, while pouring the other solid perfumes. Inspired by the memory of another perfume that was created with grapefruit and vanilla notes. The citrus top notes are rounded out by heady fresh vanilla and a touch of bergamot essential oil. This is another scent that never fails to bring a smile to my face when I take a sniff. available only as a solid perfumes.

crazy lil flowers was based on our kudzu & ginger fragrance that debuted last year, however, I brought the sweetness down a little. primary notes are still the beautiful and airy white ginger, and the sweet heady kudzu blossoms, however, there's just a little more jasmine to round things out. give it a whirl this year! available in solid and roll on perfumes.

so that's pretty much it for the new scents that I've blended for the year.

lip scrubs are also getting a make-over. I'm changing up the flavors for this year, going with a more dessert themed approach. and yes, we will have our lip kits available this year!

I think that's it for now! I will post more once I know what I'm going to produce and also when I get confirmation as to our booth assignment for made in hawaii.

as always, if there's anything you need in the meantime, feel free to email me through the website!